From the opening gavel to the swearing in of the 17 new state senators who won the recent election, it took little time for one of the new faces to test the unicameral waters. Brett Lindstrom, of Omaha, was the freshman senator who did.

"I realize newly elected members of the Legislature usually do not run for chairmanship," Lindstrom said. "However, we are in a unique circumstance of having 18 members of the body, and due to term limits, we must take on leadership rolls."

Lindstrom, a Republican, came a single vote short of beating Jeremy Nordquist, a Democrat from Omaha, for chairman of the Legislature's retirement committee. Lindstrom says he ran because of his background in investments, and doesn't know if the close vote signals a conservative swing in the nonpartisan body.

"Whether my election was an indication of that, we'll see. Time will tell," Lindstrom said.

Lawmakers elected Galen Hadley over fellow Republican Colby Coash for speaker of the Legislature. They retained Heath Mello, a Democrat, as appropriation chairman, and selected Bob Krist as executive board chairman. They selected Les Seiler as judiciary chairman and Mike Gloor, of Grand Island, to lead the revenue committee.

"I don't think you can read anything into those. I don't think any shift in the body," Hadley said.

The newly elected speaker says he is impressed with the new crop of lawmakers, saying they bring maturity and experience to the table, and apparently aren't hesitant about making their presence known.

"A sense of urgency to what we were trying to do, because of term limits we're only here for eight years," Lindstrom said.

Papillion Sen. Bill Kintner says he will push to do away with secret ballots for leadership positions in the Legislature and make senator's votes public. Governor-elect Pete Ricketts will be sworn in to office Thursday.